Democracy's "death spiral"

In the reputed cause of keeping us safe, the Bush administration has gutted our defenses and left us more vulnerable than ever.

Is that merely some rabid charge thrown about by the irresponsible liberal blogosphere? No, that's the U.S. military talking, which goes even farther by depicting its readiness condition as a "death spiral."

In a perverse way, it's a good thing we're fighting them there, because we have very little to fight them with anywhere else, according to an eye-popping account from the Washington Post: "Four years after the invasion of Iraq, the high and growing demand for U.S. troops there and in Afghanistan has left ground forces in the United States short of the training, personnel and equipment that would be vital to fight a major ground conflict elsewhere, senior U.S. military and government officials acknowledge."

Who, specifically, is this doomsaying band of brothers that sounds like the Bush-hating, Bush-bashing blogosphere in throwing around phrases like "death spiral"? Well, there's the Army chief of staff: "We have a strategy right now that is outstripping the means to execute it." There's the Army's vice chief of staff, who describes his forces' readiness capability as "stark." And there's the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, who, when "asked last month by a House panel whether he was comfortable with the preparedness of Army units in the United States," replied bluntly, "No ... I am not comfortable."

"More troubling," the report continued, "is that it will take years for the Army and Marine Corps to recover." In response the Pentagon has recommended the Army and Marine Corps' expansion by 92,000 troops. And that's just for starters.

But here's what's even more troubling to me and what seems like only a few others. The real death spiral we find ourselves in is more along the lines of what economist, historian and political scientist Chalmers Johnson gloomily outlines: something you might call "democracy's death spiral."

In an excellent, don't-miss interview with BuzzFlash.com, the Blowback-trilogy author goes back to the future with this profound and, I think, prophetic caveat: "History tells us there’s no more unstable, critical configuration than the combination of domestic democracy and foreign empire. You can be one or the other. You can be a democratic country, as we have claimed in the past to be, based on our Constitution. Or you can be an empire. But you can’t be both."

Yet "both" is what we're led to believe we're nobly pursuing, as we not only rebuild but now rapidly expand our military forces -- for our own good. And our "own good" will entail an ever-swelling military-industrial complex in support of an ever-inflating global fighting force engaged in increasingly numerous conflicts at deficit-bloating, economy-destroying costs.

Oh, and democracy-destroying costs, too. For empires demand unidimensional direction. They need one voice, one leader, one "decider." They cannot and will not tolerate 535 elected representatives and scores of constitutionally conscientious magistrates forcing their two-cents' worth into the mix. That system spells "messy" -- just about the only thing Donald Rumsfeld got right in six years -- and empires don't do messy. They are, rather, exceedingly unilinear in purpose and thought.

In the third of his trilogy, Nemesis, Professor Johnson writes that the United States "is launched on a dangerous path that it must abandon or else face the consequences."

That path is getting shorter by the day.

Comments

[Vic Anderson]

AND the 'Nam analogous aftermath a long time until the dawn.

[reader]

I don't think they made a mistake it works for their future needs and worldview; first they are decimating the Army so they can force a draft sooner than later; and in a two -tiered society of only rich and poor the poor can't get together the means to demand democracy principles; so they are forcing/developing the future shape of American demographics down a certain path a two-fer neocon benefit; by depleting the Army now and depleting the economy the remaining poor Americans 98% will be drafted to fight for the transglobal monopolies of the 1-2% .... it is exactly the outcome they designed and wanted; the masses are asses to the elite; the poor are their cannon fodder - weeds in their garden of eden; disposable people and they prefer it that way - make the population indebted wage slaves or/and conscripted cannon fodder foot soldiers - privatizing profits and socializing debt as far as the eye can see that is what they have done - they need regulated ; Patrick Leahy is proposing a bill that would make war profit-teering a crime.... we the people should support that;

[kivals]

To add on to the comment of the previous poster, many of the elites who support this almost certainly convince themselves this is all for the good of humanity in the long term as their plans will lead to depopulation of the US and the world and that will solve the overpopulation problems and could indirectly solve many environmental problems, including global warming. Of course in the short run the most impoverished have the most kids, which leads to declining sophistication of the population and allows it to be more easily manipulated. However, I am sure they feel confident that in the long run they will be able to limit the procreation of the non-elites.

There is nothing "democratic" about the Bush administration and the business elites that support it, but sadly there are so many gullible ignorant voters, the low-lying fruit of the electorate, that can be convinced to go along with lies and disinformation that Bush and his fascist cohorts can win elections, against the voters own interests and those of their children.

[RubyGlare]

It's just like a 1970s sci-fi novels set in the future-the multinational corps. have all the real power & the "municipal" governments are like beggars & servants. This is why they are creating private security forces-for those who can pay, vs. the "municipal" police for the rest of us. Same with the military, the water supply, so much else....